The Present invention relates to a contactor used in checking the electrical characteristic of an object to be checked. In particular, the present invention relates to a contactor used in checking the electrical characteristics of a plurality of semiconductor elements formed on a semiconductor wafer.
As a contactor used in checking the electrical characteristics of a larger number of IC chips of a memory circuit, logic circuit, etc., formed on, for example, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to simply as a wafer), use is made of a probe card. The probe card has a plurality of probe terminals (for example, probe needles, bumps) corresponding to a plurality of electrode pads formed on, for example, an IC chip. The probe card has its probe terminals set in contact with electrode pads of an object to be checked and, by doing so, it serves as a relay for transmitting and receiving checking signals between a testing apparatus and the object to be checked.
In a recent time, the integration degree of the IC chip becomes higher and higher and electrode pads are rapidly increasing in number and are becoming narrower and narrower in pitch. With this, the probe needles of the probe cards are increasing in number and the probe terminals are becoming narrower and narrower in pitch. Further, with an increasing size of the wafer, the number of IC chips in the wafer is rapidly increasing. A longer time is necessary to check all the IC chips formed on a single wafer and an important task is to reduce a checking time involved. Even in the checking made by the probe card, the IC chips are not checked on one-by-one basis, but a plurality of IC chips formed on the single wafer are checked at a time or all the IC chips formed on the single wafer are checked at a time, thus reducing the checking time.
In a conventional probe card, a plurality of probe terminals are supported at one-end sides and, in the case where electrode pads on an object (IC chip) to be checked are arranged in a plurality of arrays, a support structure of those probe terminals corresponding to this arrangement becomes very complicated. It has been difficult to change an array of probe needles in a manner to correspond to various arrays of electrode pads on the IC chip and there raised the problems such that the freedom with which the probe needles were arranged was low and the tip positions of the probe needles were liable to be set wrong due to a thermal influence at a time of checking.
The present invention solves the above-mentioned tasks. The present invention can ensure a higher degree of freedom with which the probe terminals are arranged. According to the present invention, the probe terminals can be easily so arranged as to correspond to any electrode array of the object to be checked, and a plurality of elements formed on the object can be checked at a time. According to the present invention it is possible to lessen the thermal Ad influence and set the electrodes of the object and probe terminals of the contactor in an accurate and positive contact way.
In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a contactor comprising a first substrate, a plurality of first electrodes arranged in one surface of the first substrate, a plurality of probe terminals provided on the first electrode and making electrical contact with each of a plurality of checking electrodes of an object to be checked, the contact terminal having at least one conductive support mounted upright with a predetermined aspect ratio, a conductive elastic support plate whose one end is fixed to that end of the conductive support which is opposite to the first electrode and a contact terminal provided on the other end of the elastic support plate, a plurality of second electrodes arranged on the other surface of the first substrate, a first connection line electrically connecting, in the first substrate, each of the first electrode to each of the second electrode, and electrical connection means connecting each of the second electrodes to a testing apparatus.
Further, in this contactor, it is preferable that the aspect ratio of the conductive support be 2 to 20.
Further, in this contactor, it is preferable that the conductive support be comprised of a structure of a triangular prism.
Further, preferably, the elastic support plate has two plates arranged in a spaced-apart way and a connection plate connecting together one-end sides of these two plates, those free ends of the two plates of the elastic support plates which are not connected by the connection plate are fixed to the conductive support, and a contact terminal is provided at a substantially middle of the connection plate of the elastic support plate.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the elastic support plate has a substantially square frame-like plate and a bridge-like plate provided at a diagonal line of the frame, the frame-like plate is fixed to the conductive support at corners on the diagonal line, and the contact terminal is provided at a substantially middle of the bridge-like plate.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the elastic support plate has a substantially square frame-like plate and two cantilever-like beams extending from the two corners on the diagonal line of the frame and having free ends facing each other in a space-apart way, the frame-like plate is fixed to the conductive support at the corners on the diagonal line and two contact terminals are provided such that the free ends of the cantilever-like beams are arranged opposite to each other with a spacing provided.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, electrical connection means connecting each of the second electrodes to a testing apparatus has a second substrate and third electrodes provided on one surface of the second substrate and elastically and electrically contacted with the second electrode.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the second substrate is comprised of a printed board.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the plurality of first electrodes are arranged at a central area of one surface of the first substrate.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the plurality of first electrodes are so provided as to correspond to all of a plurality of checking electrodes of the object to be checked.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the plurality of second electrodes are arranged at a peripheral area on the other surface of the first substrate.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the contact terminal is comprised of a bump having a flat surface at a forward end and gradually increased in wideness from the forward end toward a base section.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the probe terminal is cylindrical in configuration.
In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a contactor comprising a first substrate, a plurality of first electrodes arranged on one surface of the first substrate, a plurality of probe terminals respectively provided on the first electrodes and making electrical contact with each of a plurality of checking electrodes of an object to be checked, the probe terminal having at least one conductive support mounted upright on the respective first electrode with a predetermined aspect ratio, a conductive elastic support plate whose one end is fixed to that end of the conductive support which is opposite to the first electrode, and a contact terminal formed over the first substrate and provided on the other end of the elastic support plate, a latching member provided on the first substrate to restrict an access distance of the elastic support plate to the first substrate side, a plurality of second electrodes arranged on the other surface of the first substrate, a first connection line electrically connecting, in the first substrate, each of the first electrodes to each of the second electrodes, and electrical connection means connecting each of the second electrodes to a testing apparatus.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the aspect ratio of the conductive support is 2 to 20.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the elastic support plate has two plates arranged in a spaced-apart way and a connection plate connecting together one-end sides of these two plates, free ends of the two plates of the elastic support plate which are not connected by the connection plate are fixed to the conductive support and the contact terminal is provided at a substantially middle of the connection plate of the elastic support plate.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the elastic support plate has a substantially square frame-like plate and a bridge-like provided on a diagonal line of the frame, the frame-like plate is fixed to conductive supports at corners on a diagonal line and the contact terminal is provided at a substantially the middle of the bridge-like plate.
Further, preferably, in the contactor, the elastic support plate has a substantially square frame-like plate and two cantilever-like beams extending from two corners on the diagonal line of the frame onto the diagonal line and having free ends arranged opposite to each other with a clearance provided, the frame-like plate is fixed to the conductive support at corners on the diagonal line, ant two contact terminals are provided at the respective free ends of the cantilever-like beams in a mutually opposite way with a spacing provided.
Further, preferably, in this contactor, the electrical connection means connecting each of the second electrodes to a testing apparatus has a second substrate and third electrodes provided on one surface of the second substrate and having elastic connection members elastically and electrically contacted with the second electrodes.
In a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing a contactor with the use of a processing technique having the steps of coating a resist film on a predetermined surface, exposing the resist film with light, etching the exposed portion of the resist film to form an opening in the resist film, and performing a predetermined process on the opening, comprising the step of forming a plurality of said first electrodes on the first substrate; the step of forming the conductive support on each of the first electrodes, as a resist in the step of forming the conductive support use being made of a transparent resist material so as to form the conductive support of a predetermined aspect ratio; the step of forming the conductive elastic support plate whose one end is fixed to an end opposite to the first electrode side of each of the conductive supports; and the step of forming the contact terminal on the other end of the elastic support plate.
In a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of manufacturing the contactor with the use of a processing technique having the steps of coating a resist film on a predetermined surface, exposing the resist film with light, etching the exposed portion of the resist film to form an opening in the resist film, and performing a predetermined processing on the opening, comprising the step of forming a plurality of said first electrodes on the first substrate; the step of forming the conductive support and latching member on each of said first electrodes, as a resist material in the step of forming the conductive support and latching member use being made of a transparent resist material so as to form the conductive support of a predetermined aspect ratio; the step of forming the conductive elastic support plate whose one end is fixed to an end opposite to the first electrode side of each of the conductive supports; and the step of forming the contact terminal on the other end of the elastic support plate.